Dumb Question...What is a graflock back?

And does the Sinar F1 have one?

I googled it and no one explains what they are.

My understanding is that Graflok is a Graflex trade name for what is now commonly called the international standard back. I believe it was introduced by Graflex on the Speed and Crown graphic and was later adopted as a standard.

In practice, all this means is that the hole in the back of the camera (under the ground glass) is of a very specific size and has little sliding tabs along the long side of the hole. These are the 'lock' part of the Graflok. The most significant use of the Graflok back is that you can remove the ground glass and mount a roll film holder in the locking mechanism. If you shoot with ordinary cut film holders the presence or absence of a grafloc back is completely immaterial.

I'm not all that familiar with the Sinar cameras but, I'd be supprised if a modern (past 20 years or so) 4x5 studio camera didnot have a Grafloc back. Especially something as nice as the Sinar F1. My Omega 45 has one.

Graflok has become a generic name for the otherwise known international back, which allows you to remove the focus panel and use roll film backs and other types of backs that will not fit under the common spring back. The back was introduced by the graflex company many years ago.

Dave

mark said:

And does the Sinar F1 have one?

I googled it and no one explains what they are.

Click to expand...

Mark,

The sinar should have a graflock back. You need to remove the ground glass from the rest of the back. This will expose two metal pieces that slide to lock another back in place.

Brian J. Nelson

GaussianNoise said:

My understanding is that Graflok is a Graflex trade name for what is now commonly called the international standard back. I believe it was introduced by Graflex on the Speed and Crown graphic and was later adopted as a standard.

Click to expand...

The Graflok and the Graflex are slightly different:

http://www.graflex.org/speed-graphic/features.html#GraflokBack

The graflok is what became the standard. The graflex used different sized film holders.

My Burke and James Orbit camera takes the same film holders as the graflok, but it is not a graflok back. A graflok allows you to remove the ground glass and attach a roll-film holder. I have this for my min-speed graphic. The spring-back on the B&J doesn't disconnect in any way.

Matt

Graflex backs are larger and use different types of clips to hold the optional stuff on, they are the least desirable of the removable backs. As has been posted Most of the more modern cameras have a graflok back...

Dave